SymbOS development continues - actual progress

[Prodatron]

Sorry for my absence here for a long while, but I think it's time to come back. Would like to use this thread for posting the actual progress of the SymbOS development.
Since november I continue my work on SymbOS 2.1. The new feature, what has been implemented now, is the multiline-textinput-control. SymbOS lack in this feature all the time in the past, which is a little bit crazy I guess, as it's a very important one. So it was a good starter which helped to come in again.

As already posted in the other thread, I did this video today showing the actual status of the new control:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfeIJmwv7QM
Most things are implemented now:
- auto word wrap (can be at the window-border or a defined position)
- line-length is not limited, line feeds are handled correctly
- cursor navigation (ctrl+arrow keys skip words/lines, cursor holds x position when moving up and down)
- text marking (shift+arrow keys)
- cut/copy/paste/delete/select all (ctrl+X/C/V/A)
- full mouse support (cursor positioning, marking including scrolling, context menu for cut/copy...)
With the exception of an undo-function and word-marking on doubleclick, I would say it already works 100% like such a control in actual GUIs.
Though it's still "only" a GUI control, not a whole word processor application. The text length is currently limited to 16KB and 8000 lines for one control. Support for alternative fonts have to be implemented as well, as it's very important for editing code-style textfiles with a fixed character-width.
There are a few bugs left, which have to be fixed, and I also have to re-implement the old Singleline-Textinput control, which now will be based on the new routines.
When this is done, I finally can release a new preview version of SymbOS 2.1 (hopefully end of december).
CU,
Prodatron

[Sykobee (Briggsy)]

Good work! Looks very complete.

[RockRiver]

Great!!!


My dreams about SymbOS:
- Notepad (text viewer/editor) [done] Yeahh!!!
- AYC music files support on SymAmp
- DOX files development (SymZilla) [There are some Net board developments for CPC]
- compatibility with BonnyDOS (HDos on AMSDOS/Basic). If Brueggi (missing on CPC scene) doesn't allow FAT16, maybe BFS16 HDDformat support on SymbOS?
- CPR cpc+ cartridge files loader like ROM msx cartridge files loader
- DSK files explorer
- HDD support on PCW SymbOS
- Speccy (RAMexpanded&divide/Pentagon/Velesoft's Profi interface) port. SymbOS would be the bridge between the most important Z80 systems.
- Symbiface drivers for HDOS (Palmer). Maybe someday FAT16 on AMSDOS... But I'm a BonnyDOS happy user


Yes, I'm a dreamer. But SymbOS is a "wet dream" for a XXI century 8bit user.
Thanks for SymbOS, Jörn 

[Prodatron]

Hi RockRiver,

- Notepad (text viewer/editor) [done] Yeahh!!!

Yes, this will be finished soon

- AYC music files support on SymAmp

IIRC a quite large buffer for decrunching is required (or do I mix it with something else?) Anyway that should be possible.

- DOX files development (SymZilla) [There are some Net board developments for CPC]

An XML2DOX converter is 95% finished (a SymShell-based commandline application, which I implemented end of 2009); should be possible to complete it at the beginning of next year

- compatibility with BonnyDOS (HDos on AMSDOS/Basic). If Brueggi (missing on CPC scene) doesn't allow FAT16, maybe BFS16 HDDformat support on SymbOS?

Unfortunately that's not possible There is not much space left for filemanager-routines - I have to fight for every byte here.

- CPR cpc+ cartridge files loader like ROM msx cartridge files loader

I wonder if this possible without additional hardware? On the MSX a ROM is mapped in the same way like additional RAM. That makes it possible to simulate ROMs with RAM. Don't know if this would work for CPC+ catridges?

- DSK files explorer

Cool idea! That would be really an interesting feature/tool!

- HDD support on PCW SymbOS

Are there any HDD-interfaces still available for the PCW?

- Speccy (RAMexpanded&divide/Pentagon/Velesoft's Profi interface) port. SymbOS would be the bridge between the most important Z80 systems.

Let's talk about this in Bilbao at the RetroEuskal 2013! 

- Symbiface drivers for HDOS (Palmer). Maybe someday FAT16 on AMSDOS... But I'm a BonnyDOS happy user

FAT16 in Amsdos would be a dream! Strange that nobody implemented it until today...

But SymbOS is a "wet dream" for a XXI century 8bit user.
Thanks for SymbOS, Jörn 

thanx for your nice words

CU soon,
Prodatron

[Gryzor]

Heeeeey welcome back - and thanks for the updates! Really nice seeing that there's still development going on

[Prodatron]

After 5 years on the one hand it's crazy to be back again, on the other hand it feels, like if no time passed at all 

[Gryzor]

Home sweet home

Oh, and things are certainly quieter nowadays!

[Prodatron]

After returning to the retro-computing-scene in may this year, I really wanted to release a new SymbOS preview before 2012 passes. Re-entering the project in november and having nearly no free-time in december that was quite a tough timing.
So I am happy that today at the 31.12.2012 I am able to deliver something.

http://www.symbos.de/files/symbos21-preview.zip

This DSK contains
- the actual SymbOS CPC 2.1 preview ( RUN"SYM" )
- the new Notepad application (APPNOTEP.EXE)
- the still unreleased "Conways Game of Life" application (APPGLIFE.EXE)
All three are still beta (which also means, they are still buggy).

[attach=2] [attach=3]

The Notepad application hasn't own features yet (the "Edit"-menu is currently deactivated), but it provides the full functionality of the new multiline-textinput-control including alternative fonts. I put a set of fonts together (see Menu "Format" -> "Settings...") which I found on my harddisc from 2007. Some of them have been converted by Trebmint with SymStudio, they could still need some optimization.

Using the multiline-textinput-control is nearly 100% like using such controls in modern GUIs. Beside the shortcuts CTRL+C/X/V/A, you can mark text with Shift+Cursor, jump around with Control+Cursor and use the mouse for marking (left button) and editing (right button opens the context-menu). It uses the SymbOS-clipboard, so you can copy texts between different windows/applications (just start Notepad multiple times and copy text from one into another).

SymbOS growed again, the size of the core part is now >70KB, which unfortunately also means, that more and more applications won't run on an unexpanded CPC-6128 anymore (well, Notepad still runs on 128K ).

If you find some strange bugs, please tell me.

Happy new year and see you all in 2013!
Prodatron

[beaker]

Hi Prodatron,

Happy New Year to you too. Before I hit the pub I thought I'd give it a quick go.

Looks great so far. I have a quick question; what's the maximum size a text file can be?

[attach=3]

I randomly shoved a couple of files onto a disk image and loaded them and the Eula.txt (43k) from Visual Source Safe 2005 gave me a text buffer is full message. The other thing I was wondering was if it could be some of the characters like the bullet points? Enclosed is the disk image.

Beaker

[Prodatron]

Yeah, happy new year! 
Thanks a lot for testing!

So I checked your DSK...:
The EULA.TXT is stored in a 16bit Unicode format (each char takes 2 bytes - just check it with a hex viewer - you will see a ZERO behind each regular char). Notepad accepts pure 8bit-ASCII texts only (with chars between 32-127).
Oh yes, it's SymbOS, but please don't forget that we are still in the 8bit world 

Regarding the size:
- as mentioned in the first post due to memory banking restrictions the multiline-textinput-control is currently limited to 16KB text and a maximum of 8000 lines
- using an alternative font will even decrease this by 1,5K
- I have to check later if I can increase it without consuming too much additional memory for the core part of SymbOS (which is an issue...)
- for the same reason, fonts are currently restricted to chars between 32-127 (pure ASCII); it should be discussed, if it would make sense to enhance this to 224 or 256 chars

CU,
Prodatron

[beaker]

Oops, I only really read the post from yesterday onwards so missed on the size, sorry  Thanks for recapping 

[Sykobee (Briggsy)]

Looking pretty neat :-)

A larger character set is useful if you can enter the additional characters via the keyboard.


I can see how accented characters would be useful to be supported. In addition some simple box characters to allow tables to be laid out, when using a monospaced font.

[Gryzor]

Argh, another time waster... Can't get enough of the Game of Life!

[fkey]

Hello all,


A quick note about the AYC format.


As it is, we can create "standard" AYC files that would need a buffer of 14*256 bytes (#E00) to play the song.
I can help to adapt the existing player from OVF or try to create a new one if needed for symbos (don't know if it will be as fast though), don't hesitate to contact me at : fkey_revival@yahoo.fr


I'll try to help as much as possible.
Cheers.
Fkey.